Hackaday Links: July 1, 2012

Opening really old lock boxes

[Barry Wels] is a locksmith. One day, he got a call from a museum that had a few 17th century strong boxes that needed to be opened. After a little probing with an endoscope, he decided they could be picked with a little bit of spring steel. So, what’s in the box? [Barry] is going to send in an update in a month or two.

An awesome Geordi La Forge VISOR. But don’t take my word for it.

[DrewSmith007] made a replica of Geordi’s VISOR from Star Trek: The Next Generation. Bonus: it’s autographed by Levar Burton.

Free mirrors for your laser cutter

If you have a laser cutter, your mirrors will get damaged, and they’re very expensive to replace. [Phil] sent in a neat tip: make your own mirrors from hard drive platters.

A proper M.U.L.E. remake

Combine Settlers of Catan with M.U.L.E.. That’s what this Kickstarter is trying to do, and it sounds freakin’ awesome.

The platter mirrors only last for a short time. Buy some nice NOS gold plated silicon or copper mirrors made by II-IV or Laser Power Optics and be done with it. You will never damage them at the low powers of small laser cutters and never have to realign once they are in. If you are spending a couple grand to build a machine (Average price) or even buy a cheap chinese one, what is $100 to $150 for good mirrors?